Lepidium oblongum (Brassicaceae) appeared on Hungarian railways

Lepidium oblongum, of American origin is a new member of the European adventive flora, only detected in Romania so far. The first Hungarian stand was discovered in 2018, and others in 2020. Based on our studies, we detail its morphological characteristics in comparison with other Lepidium species. We present a new drawing and a table to help identify the species. Lepidium oblongum is easily identifiable by its divided (lobed or lobed-dentated) upper stem leaves. By analyzing selected climatic parameters we show that the new European habitats are found in the drier and cooler summer subtype of the humid continental climate belt. In Hungary, it spreads directly along the railways. The establishment of individual populations can be influenced by the location of cargo unloading and the movement of railway workers. Lepidium oblongum occupies gravelly, sun-exposed habitats along Hungarian railway tracks such as loading platforms, guardhouses and goods stations. Based on its high stress and climatic tolerance and initial spread-rate, it is consider to be a naturalized member of the European adventive flora, that could be potentially invasive along the European railways

Covid-19 in India-Emergence, Implications and Possible Precautionary Measure for Disease Transmission in Indian Healthcare Workers

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a potentially fatal disease that prompted health disasters worldwide. The virus was reported first from Wuhan, China, in December 2019. SARS-CoV-2 majorly transmits through direct contactwith an infected person or inhalation.The spread rate of SARS-CoV-2 is much higher than the other virus of family. The virus is very harmful to the children, people with old age, low immunity, or suffering from other critical diseases. A total of 29.6 million infected cases and approximately 936000 death were reported worldwide. Whereas in India reached 5.02 Million cases are reported with 82000 deaths. In this paper, the authors had study the Origin of viruses, Symptoms, actions taken by the Indian government, and precautions suggested to healthcare workers. The biometric system's adverse effects in hospitals are highlighted, and authors emphasize IoT-based smart door-lock that works without direct contact. The proposed system helps in reducing contamination at healthcare centers.

Covid-19 in India-Emergence, Implications and Possible Precautionary Measure for Disease Transmission in Indian Healthcare Workers

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a potentially fatal disease that prompted health disasters worldwide. The virus was reported first from Wuhan, China, in December 2019. SARS-CoV-2 majorly transmits through direct contactwith an infected person or inhalation.The spread rate of SARS-CoV-2 is much higher than the other virus of family. The virus is very harmful to the children, people with old age, low immunity, or suffering from other critical diseases. A total of 29.6 million infected cases and approximately 936000 death were reported worldwide. Whereas in India reached 5.02 Million cases are reported with 82000 deaths. In this paper, the authors had study the Origin of viruses, Symptoms, actions taken by the Indian government, and precautions suggested to healthcare workers. The biometric system's adverse effects in hospitals are highlighted, and authors emphasize IoT-based smart door-lock that works without direct contact. The proposed system helps in reducing contamination at healthcare centers.

Fire behaviors along timber linings affixed to tunnel walls in mines

Timber linings are applied as primary supports in the tunnel fault and fracture zones of mines. These linings are essential to prevent broken rock from falling during the occurrence of exogenous fires. In this study, experiments and numerical simulations were carried out using a fire dynamics simulator to investigate the flame-spread rate, flame characteristics, smoke movement, and spread process of timber-lining fires under different wind speeds of 0, 0.25, 0.5, and 0.75 m/s. It was found that cross-section flame spreading follows the three-stage sidewall-ceiling-sidewall pattern. Moreover, the average flame-spread rate increases along the vertical flame-spreading direction and decreases when the flame reaches the timber-lining corners. Moreover, the flame lengths underneath the timber-lining ceiling in the x-direction are longer than those in the y-direction. As the wind speed increases, the normalized flame lengths R(f) in the two directions decrease, and the maximum temperature underneath the ceiling decreases. In addition, the maximum temperature in the three tunnel sections of interest is first recorded in the tunnel cross-section in the initial fire stage. Higher wind speeds correspond to farther distances of the maximum-temperature points of the three timber-lining sections from the fire source.

Balancing capacity and epidemic spread in the global airline network

The structure of complex networks has long been understood to play a role in transmission and spreading phenomena on a graph. Such networks form an important part of the structure of society, including transportation networks. As society fights to control the COVID-19 pandemic, an important question is how to choose the optimum balance between the full opening of transport networks and the control of epidemic spread. In this work we investigate the interplay between network dismantling and epidemic spread rate as a proxy for the imposition of travel restrictions to control disease spread. For network dismantling we focus on the weighted and unweighted forms of metrics that capture the topological and informational structure of the network. Our results indicate that there is benefit to a directed approach to imposing travel restrictions, but we identify that more detailed models of the transport network are necessary for definitive results.

Effects of Fire Compartmentation and Smoke Exhaust Measures on Smoke Spread Caused by Cable Fire in Utility Tunnel

Investigating the behavior of fire smoke in utility tunnel as well as smoke prevention and control measures are of vital significance for exhausting smoke from utility tunnel, realizing efficient firefighting and rescue, and guaranteeing the normal operation of cities. Taking utility tunnel as the research background, this paper builds a simulation calculation model for fire smoke prevention and control in the utility tunnel using PyroSim numerical simulation software and explores the rules of smoke spread under conditions such as building ceiling screen, changing fire compartmentation tightness, and adding smoke exhaust facilities. According to study results, before the tunnel was filled with smoke, ceiling screens lowered smoke spread rate, and smoke spread rate was inversely proportional to the ceiling screen height. When the fire door was opened, fire smoke spread to the adjacent fire compartment, and smoke spread rate was directly proportional to the fire door opening angle. Before the tunnel was filled up, mechanical smoke exhaust facilities significantly lowered the smoke spread rate by as much as 50%. When the entire tunnel was full of smoke, mechanical smoke exhaust facilities significantly reduced the smoke concentration in the utility tunnel; smoke layer temperature dropped by as much as 32°C, while visibility improved by as much as 66%. By studying smoke spread in utility tunnel, this paper aims to determine the optimal measures of preventing and controlling smoke spread in utility tunnel. This paper could also offer some reference for practical engineering applications in smoke prevention and control in utility tunnel.

GoZone: A Numerical Model for Travelling Fires Based on Cellular Automata Concept

Fires in large compartments tend to burn locally and to move across the floor over a period of time; this particular behaviour has been discovered to challenge the assumption of uniform gas temperature in the fire compartment. Recent studies on fires in large compartments have led to the now widely known concept of “travelling fires”. Several models have been proposed to describe the evolution in time of travelling fires. Although these models represented an innovative step in the field of travelling fires, the major drawbacks of these models can be found in the simplification of fire dynamics (constant spread rate, 1D imposed fire path) and limited field of application (rectangular based geometries). The purpose of this paper is to present a numerical model of travelling fire. The model was based on an improved zone model combined with a cellular automata model. The software GoZone, in which the model was implemented, is intended to be a practical solution to analyse fires in large compartments of potentially any shape. GoZone is aimed to describe the complex dynamics of the fire from ignition to a phase of growing localised fire that may eventually travel in the compartment, possibly followed by a flashover. The main sub models comprising GoZone are presented. A comparison is given with the results of under ventilated fire test 2 of the BST/FSR 1993 test series and with respect to the Veselì travelling fire test is shown. GoZone shows a promising capacity to represent fires in a large compartment in both air and fuel controlled fire conditions.

Effect of Glue Spreads on the Structural Properties of Laminated Veneer Lumber from Spindleless Rotary Veneers Recovered from Short Rotation Hevea Plantation Logs

Unproductive young rubber trees (15 years old) with smaller diameters (15 to 18 cm) compared to conventional rubber logs, harvested at the age of 25 years old, were selected for the production of laminated panels. Spindleless rotary veneer peeling was applied to logs from short-rotation rubber forest plantations to produce veneers for structural purposes. This raises questions about the utilization of these small-diameter logs with respect to its effect on the quality of veneer and laminated panels produced. This study examines the effect of the glue spread rates on the physical and mechanical properties of rubberwood laminated veneer lumber (LVL). Analysis of variance shows that the application of a 280 g/m2 glue spread rate significantly improved the density, water absorption and dimensional stability of rubberwood LVL. The mechanical properties of rubberwood LVL produced with a 200 g/m2 glue spread rate met the minimum requirement for the 2.1E-3100F stress class; 91.05 MPa for the modulus of rupture in the flatwise direction and 50.23 MPa for compressive strength parallel to the longitudinal axis. The modulus of elasticity in the flatwise direction of 11,189.55 MPa reached the minimum requirement for the 1.5E-2250F stress class.